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  SmithUS at 04:09 PM JST - 25th March

  I take it few of you are actually baseball fans so don’t get so bent out of shape. Although Ichiro’s comment didn’t sound great, he only said what every American sports commentator has been complaining about for the last week: That this team was not our best and too many of our best players didn’t play or couldn’t play because of regular season contract pressure and even the ones that did show up were out of shape.

  The timing is bad for American players. Because they want to save themselves for the long MLB season, they don’t want to start practicing in January for the WBC only to be too tired in October for the MLB play offs. Players don’t want to risk injury (maybe not the most valid excuse because players could just as easily get injured in spring training games). Plus the owners/managers don’t want their players to participate due to the risk of injury. Plus unlike team Japan/Korea, the non Asian MLB players care far more about the MLB season than winning the WBC title.

  The fact is that the American team didn’t look like an All Star team. It just looked like a very good MLB team (that I would love to have) except that it wasn’t a real team with a real winning record so instead it was in fact a less than stellar All Star team. And that’s still different than sending your best team to get everyone excited whether that be the fans or the opposing players who want the challenge. Although everyone was watching in Korea and Japan, American fans were largely uninterested in the WBC as evidenced by low TV ratings and lackluster attendance numbers for the America vs. Puerto Rico/Venezuela games. Some Americans sport commentators were questioning the future of the WBC if we can’t get more commitment from American players.

  For the record, the comment Ichiro made about Korean baseball before the last WBC was not, “Korea is 30 years behind...” It was more like, “we will show them that they can beat Japan for the next 30 years.”

  Although Ichiro must have an ego, my theory about why Ichiro makes such brazen comments is that he’s trying to act more like a stereotypical American. It’s something I’ve noticed where some Japanese think Americans are all free and they say or do whatever they want and Americans trash talk, etc. And then you have to tell them that Americans still have concepts of what or what is not proper behavior. And that it’s very old school for present day athletes to trash talk because players no longer want to give other teams extra incentive to player harder.

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  isthistheend at 04:26 PM JST - 25th March

  Ichiro is Ichiro. He's rich, he's earned his fame, and he still performs like no one else. His uniqueness has contributed to his baseball greatness. About being a multi-talented skillful talker is another thing entirely. And that he is not. He's good at being slightly arrogant, but hey, haven't you noticed anyone else with similar Ichiro-type personalities especially to foreigners on these archepelago? I say hello to someone I've seen more than a dozen timies and they look at me like I'm a fool. Call it whatever you want, its their way, and that's that. Never expect to get similar treatment or similar speaking content from one culture to the next.

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  SmithUS at 04:26 PM JST - 25th March

  Also forgot to mention by the time team US played Japan, we were missing at least 5 players including three very important players in Chipper, Youk, and league MVP Dustin Pedroia. The team that showed up minus these players WAS sad especially when you had to watch slow footed, normally a DH Adam Dunn play 1st and right field.

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  Orchid64 at 04:29 PM JST - 25th March

  If the U.S. had won and a player had spoken so ungraciously about the competition, there would be all sorts of anti-American crying and demands for an apology, but it's okay for the Japanese to be such poor sports. There is such a thing as a bad winner.

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  SmithUS at 06:04 PM JST - 25th March

  As I said, Ichiro (a Japanese guy, not the whole of Japan) made a comment that was indicative of what most Americans - who care about the WBC - were thinking themselves. So no I don’t think Americans who actually care about the WBC would take much offense if any. Similarly when Ichiro made the “We’ll try and make sure Korea won’t win for another 30 years” comment, at least one famous baseball writer for ESPN, Jayson Stark, said it was like the typical comment any boastful American athlete would make but in the historical rivalry between Japan and Korea have, it was seen as much more inflammatory.

  It’s funny to see so many who don’t care about the WBC or who make a point of saying how little they care for baseball complain about his comment or anything of or related to Japan winning the WBC.

  Again, if you are not a sports fan, how would you know whether or not American athletes make Ichiro-like comments. And how would you know if anyone in Japan (the country that matters here) would actually care if an American athlete made such an Ichiro-like comment about Japanese baseball. Because American players have made disrespectful comments about Japanese baseball (to no uproar) only to deny them later (like Barry Bonds) or apologize when Japanese players played well in the MLB. Also even if other countries get worked up about comments Americans make that doesn’t mean the Japanese do.

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  nigelboy at 08:23 AM JST - 26th March

  Also forgot to mention by the time team US played Japan, we were missing at least 5 players including three very important players in Chipper, Youk, and league MVP Dustin Pedroia. The team that showed up minus these players WAS sad especially when you had to watch slow footed, normally a DH Adam Dunn play 1st and right field.

  Sure. We can play the game of "what if's" all day long but unless you actually field those players and actually play the game, who knows if those "important" players that you stated even made a difference.

  On paper, Cuba supposedly had the most potent lineup but they were manhandled by the Japan's pitching staff. Korean pitchers handled the potent lineup of Venezuela which had Cabrera, Abreu, and Mags. Even Dominican Republic which had the likes of Papi, Tejada, and Hanly Ramirez was "checked" by an unemployed journeyman named Sidney Ponson. So don't crucify me if I think the likes Chipper, Dustin, and Youk would of made a difference considering that Derosa, Roberts, and Dunn had a heck of tournament while they were playing.

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  poshdrivel at 01:09 PM JST - 26th March

  Ichiro is right, and any educated baseball fan knows the situation. Unfortunately nothing will change as long as the WBC is played in March, during spring training. The vast majority of multi-million dollar athletes have no interest in playing in this tournemant. Sports Illustrated had an excellent article a few weeks ago discussing the various problems encountered by those players, pitchers in particulur, that played in the first WBC. All the data showed that starting pitchers for the WBC suffered at least one of the following three problem;

  1) More losses than their previous year.

  2) A higher ERA.

  3) More injuries.

  In addition to this MLB players including the USA team members are at a serious disadvantage on two fronts. The first is that the MLB season is much longer than other leagues like in Korea or Japan. MLB has a 162 game schedule, Japan around 140. An extra 20 games takes its toll over the year. The MLB players need the time off to recoup, subsequently they don't start spring training in January and February like the Asians do. Hell Japan has been in training for more than a month now ! The second issue is travel. Not only do MLBers play more games, but they travel 3 times as far as Japanese and Koreans. Gee, imagine how nice it must be to play all your games... 162 in an area the size of California ! No jet lag, no time difference, no altitudes to consider... just check in at the hotel, get in a nap, and play ball !

  Now all this aside, its a fact that the USA didn't have its best players out there, which is what Ichiro is eluding to. OK, so who are Americas best players ? Well one only has to look at the 2008 MLB all-star game as a good point of reference. The starting line-up for the AL and NL teams consisted of 13 Americans, and both pitchers were Americans. Of those players only 4 made it on the WBC team, Chipper Jones, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, and Derek Jeter. So what happened to the rest ? And after the first round of pool play Jones, Pedroia, and Youkilis were out with injuries. And what about Americas best pitchers ? No Cliff Lee ? No CC Sabathia ? No Roy Halladay ? This is what Ichiro is talking about. And to be honest, I dont see any real change if any of those players were on hand to play anyway. The problem remains that this tournement is in March, a time period when MLBers don't want to risk their seasons, and possibly careers over a shiny gold trophy. And no it wasn't only the Americans displaying this attitude. All teams with large numbers of MLBers did poorly in this tournement. Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Costa Rica, hell even the MLBers on team Japan did bad. Ichiro, up to the last game was batting .211 ! Fukudome bombed out at .200. Matsuzaka, though winning the MVP, threw more than 90 pitches during his last outing... 53% were balls ! And the quality of play was also miserable. I mean, I think there were 10 errors in the semifinal games ! So there you have it, the WBC, nothing more than a poorly played pre-season tournement won by Japan. Congratulations... but Ichiro is right.

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  isthistheend at 10:36 PM JST - 26th March

  poshdrivel, all of your statements make very good illustrative sense. But the last one. Ichiro is not "right". Ichiro is a xxxx rich say whatever he wants baseball player. Oh maybe like Barry Bonds? The irony is that Ichiro has played 8 years now in the MLB. He should now the reasons the other All Stars didn't show up. In a sense, he's ratting on his own team, talking about MLB players who as you point out don't want to risk a season by making premature stress after a long season and travel of play. They have a right to their choices just as Ichiro and the Japanese and Koreans have to their lifestyle choices, don't you think? As we all know from living here many years, there's just no comparison with time schedules and days off, and ways to enjoy "work/life balance". Its push, push, push, push, and get out of the way. I think that produces a high level of accomplishment but its not the ONLY way to do so obviously. If the other teams start studying video of the tendencies of J and K pitchers, they can learn to hit even these outstanding control pitchers. Don't gloat over the win as being etched in stone. Sports is a very fluid world. And I have one final issue. Wasn't it ironic that the star of the Korean team in 2006 sat out this year so he could train with the Yomiuri Giants team? Talk about ironies. How about if Ichiro says, "Boy are we lucky the Giants signed that guy so we wouldn't have had to face him. Maybe we wouldn't have won." Think on them apples.

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  Kreza23 at 12:18 AM JST - 27th March

  isthistheend - Lee Seung-Youp was tremendous in 2006, and is a Korean legend, but he had a terrible season last year. He only hit 8 HR's all year and he was sent down to the minors as well　and it was his choosing to sit out the WBC. Hope he can come back with a good season!

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  rogerbentham at 11:32 AM JST - 27th March

  of course the u.s. lost because the big boys didn't even bother to show up - they're busy in their own mansions or penthouses over in switzerland, the caymans, or whereever it costs a gazillion to live the fast life.

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  Blue_Tiger at 07:11 PM JST - 27th March

  Yes, I've played the game of baseball before: 8 years of it in Elementary school through High School. People who made comments like Ichiro made were usually singled out as "Cocky" and good or not, were usually targeted in the next game against their team.

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  3ringcircus at 10:12 PM JST - 27th March

  rogerbentham writes,

  "of course the u.s. lost because the big boys didn't even bother to show up"

  So how do you explain Venezuela, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic ? They showed up !

  As for Ichiro, just put yourself in his shoes for a minute. He was the captain of the defending champions. His job is to motivate his teammates and prepare them for the tournement. So I imagine he did what most captains do on teams, he pushed them ! He made them work harder by telling them their efforts aren't good enough, and to play at the major league level they'll have to dig deeper. Then come tourney time his teammates find that, hey... this isn't so tough ! And they're right, it wasn't as tough... as least not like the regular MLB season that Ichiro and Johjima are used to. So what's Ichiro to do ? Tell his teammates that playing in the majors is as easy as the WBC, or... tell it like it really is, that the US team was a dumbed down version of what its like to play major league baseball. I have nothing against Ichiro for what he said, my problems with him remains the fact that he said them in public. Ichiro knows the US sent a weak team, and he knows why. He shold keep it to himself.

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  nurse13 at 11:25 AM JST - 30th March

  It’s so refreshing to hear someone speak their mind without regard to the politeness factor. There is hope, I believe after all. On the other hand… yes, what a pompous ***.

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  nurse13 at 11:40 AM JST - 30th March

  Yes, I believe Ichirohe was valid in stating his opinion. Competing against unskillful opponents is no competition at all. And is an insult to the other team members involved.

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  jonnyboy at 11:46 AM JST - 30th March

  does ichiro have tensions towards his US team-mates he wants to let out, perchance?

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